No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURE. 119 



tion and a good education, make for himself so honorable 

 a place in the respect and confidence of his fellownien, and 

 complete so fully that measure of service which every man 

 owes to the public as neighbor, citizen and patriot. 



The Chairmax. We have with us this afternoon a gentle- 

 man who knows New England and Massachusetts well, and 

 I hope that he will be inclined to say a few words to us. I 

 refer to the Hon. John E. Russell. 



Hon. John E. Russell (of Leicester). I do not wish 

 to be very backward in coming before the farmers of Massa- 

 chusetts, especially now that I am out of })olitics. You 

 may, those of you connected with agriculture, have noticed 

 that for the last eight or nine years I have been absent from 

 these meetings and from cattle shows ; and I wish that that 

 would be an example to others in politics to stay away, in- 

 stead of makinof the farmers' meetinofs the vehicle for their 

 ambitions. When I was secretary of the Board of Agricult- 

 ure I used to plan to keep them out. 



I am willing to say a few words this afternoon, although I 

 had a feeling when I listened to Mr. Atherton that I would 

 rather not speak, for the same reason that the colored min- 

 ister at the south did not want to preach against chicken 

 stealing, because he said if he did it would throw a coolness 

 over the meeting. And so, after the enthusiastic presenta- 

 tion of the implied future of our farmers and the enormous 

 growth of our manufactures, I am afraid that I cannot keep 

 up with it all. He cites a political speech, I dare say, of the 

 Hon. Mr. Boutwell, in which he showed the enormous in- 

 crease of manufacturers at the door almost of every farm, and 

 then proceeded to show the increase of farm productions 

 between 1875 and 1885. There was no such increase. It 

 shows somewhat the fallacy of what we have heard here this 

 • afternoon (excuse me, Mr. Atherton), and I will show you 

 that Mr. Atherton may be misled. I speak with authority, 

 because I assisted in making the census of 1885 on behalf of 

 the farmers of Massachusetts. To show you how fallacious 

 the comparison is, I may say that, whereas the production 

 of corn largel}' fell otf, the value of corn fodder largely in- 

 creased ; that, whereas the production of cereals largely fell 



